Urban Gentrification
Post Modernism
Structuralism
Post Colonialism
Positivism
Capitalism
Marxism
The perspective that human actions, feelings and patterns are an outcome of overarching systems and structures
The perspective that all social phenomena can be explained through scientific principles and methods
All conclusions developed from systematic observations and data
Uses historic data to predict where and when urban gentrification will occur next
considers to incorporate supportive environment
aware of isues associated with power, inequality, and material welfare
offers multiple viewpoints that emphasizes difference, uniqueness and individuality
The history of the city
Colonization
Themes of racial oppression
embraces cultural diversity
‘map’ the meanings of the city for different ‘textual communities’ and read the city as ‘text’ with urban metaphors
"jungle", "bazaar", "organism" and "machine"
rejects grand theory
rejects structuralism and distances from positivism
recognizes that the process of gentrification reconfigures the neighbourhood
impacts the community physically and socially, represented through changes in racial/ethnic composition
average household income
results in negative influences and exclusion of minority groups
provides liberation from repression
reflects gender roles without power dominance, construct and provide alternative sexual identities
such as building ‘pink economy'
rainbow crosswalks
began to exert an influence on urban geography in the late 1980s and 1990s
Rent Gap
As properties loose value there reaches a time in which the profit being made by renting the exsiting unit is less than the potential profit that could be made by rebuilidng/refurbishing/updating the unit and renting it at a higher price
Modelling the rent gap as a function of time allows us to predict when a neighborhood will begin to gentrify
Colonialism
Certain phenomena can be predicted by the idea that history always repeats itself
Gentrification and colonialism can be related through the common stages that occur during each of them (Right to the City Montreal, "COLONIZING THE INNER CITY- GENTRIFICATION AND THE GEOGRAPHIES OF COLONIALISM.," Right to the City Montreal, 15 August 2012. [Online]. Available: https://righttothecitymtl.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/colonizing-the-inner-city-gentrification-and-the-geographies-of-colonialism/. [Accessed 2 February 2020].)
1. Recon
Studying the new territory to determine whether it is a worth moving into and developing
2. Invasion
Taking over the territory. In the case of gentrification, this is done by simply purchasing the property
3. Occupation
Moving people into the territory who fit the desired demographic
4. Assimilation
Allowing the new residents to pass there beliefs onto the existing residents in an attempt to convert them to the desired demographic
Gentrification is fuelled by an opportunity for better economic return
Neil Smith's Rent Gap Thesis
The process of invading lands for the purpose of settlement and/or resource exploitation
Typically refers to European empires forcefully colonizing foreign lands for exploitation
A gap emerges between actual value of the property and its potential value
Though this era is commonly referred to as a 'post-colonial' era, there are still patterns of colonization in cities in the form of gentrification
Cities were commonly areas reserved for lower and working class people
Urban areas were not seen as desirable, when one acquired wealth it was common to move out of the city to the suburbs
Promotes redevelopments of low-income neighbourhoods for profit, shifting areas to middle to upper-class
This graph shows the median income of households within Chicago in 1980, with high wage earners situated in the suburbs and low wage earners in the heart of the city
Recently, there has been a shift in housing desires, and these cities which housed often low wage earning racial minorities are becoming desirable to young, wealthy home buyers
As a result of this shift, existing buildings are being remodelled or torn down to make room for the new, more wealthy home buyers, forcing out people that are often the most systematically disadvantaged populations and are not in a position to resist these changes
Attracts investors and their friends/families to low-income neighbourhoods
Common patterns of colonization and gentrification
Reconnaissance
Invasion
Occupation
Assimilation
Commonly, those affected most by urban gentrification are radicalized minorities who are part of the lower class
In Canada gentrification is seen to have a specific impact on our Indigenous population
In the United States, African American populations are disproportionately effected
These populations are typically the same ones which were once displaced by the more traditional colonialism we think of, and are once again the targets of these new colonizations of gentrification
Sweat Equity
Gentrifiers increase the value of buildings by doing renovations themselves to significantly increase the value of low-income housing
Purchasing cheap real estate and doing renovations themselves is a lower risk investment than purchasing a more expensive project
The economic return of demolishing and replacing old buildings increases over time
Household Income
Tend to be low-income racial minorities affected
Choices of where the upper-class can make a profit restricts the lower-class options of where to live
For example, through the 1970's, cities such as London and New York had a movement of the middle-class moving to inner city neighbourhoods because of capital investment movement from the suburbs to the city, displacing low-income populations
Gentrification is a movement of capital not of people
Every society is built on a mode of production
Idea that the form of economic organization influences all other social structures and relationships in society
Economy dictates our social relations, political institutions, legal systems, cultural systems, aesthetics, and ideologies
A mode of production society is built on, where people and companies make most of the economic decisions